Category: Singer’s Advice

Three, Or More?

Superficial approaches to vocal pedagogy, vocal coaching, and singing are like walking into quicksand.

It might look solid or safe, but it’s not.

Superstars are not born that way. They are made. They paid their dues.

What are the dues? Most people cannot or will not afford the dues. This is why there are but a few superstars.

There is more to this than: vocal technique, performance technique, and style. This would be an over-simplified approach, which omits the very things which are absolutely necessary for being a superstar singer.

To get out of the quicksand, you must have a solid foundation sitting on solid ground or the structure will either sink or collapse, having insufficient structural integrity. Superstars are built; they don’t “just happen”.

There Are Make Or Break Integral Parts

There are 18 Integral Parts which superstars have to some degree. Some parts are stronger than others, but you may be able to observe or detect these. You can read about all 18 integral parts:

The 18 Factors

Musicianship is far too often overlooked, but not by the top conservatories. That should tell us something. A great music school or conservatory hopefully prepares singers for the real world. Some are better than others. Musicianship isn’t about the nomenclature as much as it is about multi-faceted skill, understanding, and an all-encompassing perception of music and everything having to do with it, including style.

Vocal Technique is essential so as to not impede or thwart artistic expression whatsoever. It is a vast subject.

Artistic Imagination is crucial for a superstar to have, or there will be nothing outstanding or unique about the singer. Singers lacking in artistic imagination may have excellent musicianship and vocal technique, but that is also true for the best singers in choruses. Developing artistic imagination may involve cross-training in other arts, as well as removing the obstacles to it and building the creative side of a singer.

Showmanship encompasses performance technique, but much more. If you want to avoid looking like an act in a cheap circus, you might consider some serious training in movement and expression, including acting, and dance, possibly. Performance technique isn’t simply gestures, facial expressions, and microphone technique. Guess what happens when a singer fails to connect with an audience. It isn’t fun for either the audience or the singer, to say the least and at the worst, losing an audience can feel devastating. It’s not the way to build a career.

There are 14 more parts, or factors. The depth to which these are developed are proportionate to the success of a singer. They are the make/break factors of superstardom.

Here they are:

The 18 Factors

“Practice with a purpose,” he said. Who was he? Dr. J.D. Folsom, trumpet professor at Marshall University, with whom I had the privilege of studying, albeit as a trombonist.

What does that mean, to practice with a purpose? It definitely means to not run through etudes, drills, and exercises, giving little to no thought or attention as to why one might be doing those in the first place.

If an exercise or drill has no purpose, it would save a lot of time to avoid doing it.

The thing is, not all instructors or vocal coaches are equal to all others and in fact, some are dangerous to the health of one’s voice or career.

Vocal Exercises Which Have A Purpose

If a vocal coach doesn’t know which muscles for coordination or strength are being worked, he/she is playing guessing games with your voice.

If a vocal coach is weak in musicianship, interval studies for melodic and harmonic perception will most likely never be assigned.

Musicianship, the lack thereof, is the number one killer of opportunities for singers, because they have no awareness of intonation problems, much less what to do to rectify those issues.

A good vocal coach can hear if the issue of bad intonation is the result of bad musicianship or bad vocal technique and can differentiate between the two and know how to help.

When a singer sings with an elevated larynx, it’s most likely that they will 1) strain or 2) have register transition problems, ie. a “break in the voice”. Additionally, an elevated larynx may result in hyper-adduction of the vocal folds, cause irritation, and reduce endurance greatly. Over time, blisters may form on the vocal folds, become hematomas, and later turn to calluses, called vocal nodules. This is preventable.

So, why do we do “low larynx” exercises? the purpose is to prevent laryngeal elevation by retraining the voice, developing strength and coordination to overcome the upward pull of “high larynx” muscles.

When a vocal coach has some basic understanding of the anatomy, structure, and function of the vocal apparatus, it may greatly help to accelerate the progress of a student or client. Why? The purpose of the assigned exercise is known and explained to the singer. The singer puts the technique to use and improvement occurs.

Many Methods With Many Myths

1. Support the sound.
2. Sing from the diaphragm.
3. Place the sound.

The above three do not stand up to science, as they are explained to singers.

1. There is no connection between the abs and the voice, except in the mind of the singer. There is a “trick” which can be done with the abs, but is not directly connected to the vocal apparatus at all. It is a way to temporarily reduce strain, possibly, but does not replace proper technique. Tricks are best left for magicians.
2. The diaphragm is your INHALE muscle and doctors have known this since the 1700s. You may not know that it has no proprioceptive nerve and that means you CANNOT feel it! You literally do not and cannot sing from the diaphragm and every doctor on Earth knows this is a fact (unless they flunked anatomy). Telling a singer to control something which has nothing to do with tone production and cannot even be felt is cruel at it best and destructive at its worst.
3. Sound comes out of your mouth at a very high rate of speed (the speed of sound, about 1100 feet per second), You can move your tongue and your soft palate, but you cannot “send” the sound to your eyes, your “masque”, or you knees. You don’t have baffles or valves in your larynx/pharynx/sinuses. No one does. You cannot place your sound.

Finally…

Bad advice can be worse than no advice. If practicing with a purpose is based upon myths, magic, or misinformation, the results will be disappointing.

If your singing teacher or vocal coach cannot properly and clearly explain the purpose of exercises or vocalises you are assigned, you cannot practice with a purpose and will be blindly going through the same motions of getting nowhere in a hurry.

Know the purpose. Practice with the purpose.

Warming up before singing can help improve vocal performance, especially if it helps to reinforce the good habits of good vocal technique. The muscles within the larynx have functions for pitch control and vocal fold (cord) adduction, so that it is done in a safe way. Using those in the warmup can be beneficial, to prepare for singing.

The muscles connected to the larynx, such as the hyoglossus, the sterno-thyroid, and sterno-hyoid, are helpful in preventing excessive laryngeal elevation, the usual cause of strain when singing. A balance, so to speak, between so-called high larynx muscles and low larynx muscles can help to keep the larynx in a stable position, ensuring a smooth tone and one without register transition issues (cracks, breaks, or a “disconnected sound”). Warming up with a stable larynx, not too high or too low, helps to prepare for singing the same way, resulting in a performance without strain or endurance issues.

Warming up without target-specific exercises or vocalises, is probably not going to help with a performance.

Elocution Pollution NOT The Solution

Articulation Creation Is Ablation

It was this thing of being in the pocket and the best thing, the only thing, I learned from a specific teacher in Las Vegas. I was in a show and, at the same time, I was in an internship for vocal coaching, which only one person bothered to do, from all I could ascertain.

Many teachers were not trained to teach, but instead, were given lessons. There is a filter in the mind of each student and things are often altered once information passes through it. It could be debated as to whether that would enhance or detract from the data needed to sing at one’s best.

Learning to do something and being great at it, doesn’t always give one the ability or knowledge to impart the same to a student.

There are a few famous singers who are undeniably amazing, but they have no clue as to how to teach someone. I’ve seen it and heard it and they should just do what they’re great at and not impart useless or harmful pedagogy to the poor unsuspecting wannabe. I won’t name names.

“Hook Up Your Voice”

Part of my internship was to endure singing lessons from some local teachers. Some were fantastic, in the literal sense and spoke of fantasy, which had no connection to this universe as you and I know it. One had the idea that we connect everything from the pelvis up and that is how we sing. Newsflash! It is already connected in a physical sense, through tissue and cells and the nervous system. An intelligent question might be, what is actually used physically in the process of singing?

Lesson With A Guy

I got to have a lesson with a colleague, as it were, one of the same ilk as my teacher. We actually taught each other a couple of things in that lesson. He was very good and well-trained, from having years of lessons from one of the top gurus of the world. Neither of them were privy to my lessons with Dr. Donald S. Reinhardt of Philadelphia. Neither of them are brass players. I discovered that there are more similarities than differences between singing and playing a trombone. I dare say that I learned more about breath control, lung capacity, and breathing techniques than either of them would need, necessarily, but my knowledge of the subject can and will make anyone a better singer with more control than many.

Older Lady Lesson

So, there I am with an older teacher and she was a huge help with articulation and how it relates to style. There is a pocket, as it were, that exists in each and every style, for articulation in singing.

Big Takeaway

Usually you will not sing Broadway style the same way as R&B, Pop, Alternative, Punk, or Adult Alternative. They all have their own quarks, nuances, and/or idiosyncrasies. The same can be said for classical pieces.

In a classical setting, you won’t sing “Caro Mio Ben” as if you are doing a Willie Nelson or Dolly Parton impression, if you expect respect or applause.

You won’t sing “Jolene” as an operatic piece at The Grand Ole Opry, unless you are a tad askew.

Similarly, you won’t sing any style, other than the one in which a song was originally done unless you have a very good reason and a very understanding audience.

Over-articulation sounds amateur or worse.

Under-articulation sounds lazy or negligent.

Elocution pollution is often the result of bad training or no training or…

Are you sitting? Some singers have the compulsion to be “right”, even when they are wrong. Severe pronunciation or enunciation needs ablation, but the mind behind is the kind that may need a severe reality adjustment.

Some people get extremely upset if you alter lyrics to a song, for that matter. This points out there is an expectation of familiarity in and audience and when you diverge too far out of the pocket, they may dislike or even hate what they here.

How To Win Friends And Influence People, an ancient book by Dale Carnegie may hold some clues as to why people would react negatively to having their realities shaken or stomped on. You don’t have to read it, but you could.

If you overdo enunciation, it is time for ablation. Take some away, but leave enough to be intelligible and nail the style.

You are not committing a crime by not precisely enunciating every letter, as you might in German. Study style. How? Listen! Listen to singers who are professional performers and make mental notes and emulate what they do. I did not say copy. Emulate, but don’t imitate. There is a difference and your dictionary should be large enough to prove that point.

Dive deep. Learn well. Be profound. Superficiality leads to being nothing more or less than just another drop of water in the ocean.

On the other hand, if you’re not a soloist and want to sing in a choir, that’s fine, but if you have something to share with the world as a soloist, the preparation and work require the deep dive and the hard work with attention to detail.

Years ago, there was a scale of sexuality preference, which came from research done by Dr. Alfred Kinsey, Dr. Wardell Pomeroy, and Dr. Clyde Martin.  This was a scale of sexual orientation of degrees of heterosexual to homosexual orientation.

There have been newer scales of orientation done by others, but the Kinsey Scale was one of the first.  It seems that no one is 100% one way or the other.  Since “gender” has become such a hot and controversial topic, it might be enlightening to read about such things after we explore another controversial topic.

We start by acknowledging that two-valued logic omits a vast amount of reality.  Things are not dichotomous, or opposites, and the gray area is nearly infinite in scale and size.  Having postulated that as being an acceptable reality, let’s turn our attention to the world of the arts.

In music, dance, painting, sculpting, architecture and more, we enter the battlefield.  Two opposing forces, it would seem, with the artist on one side and the critic on the other.  If it were so simple, that would be marvelous indeed.  Unfortunately, each has the other’s disease to an extent.

Just like with the Kinsey scale, there is a scale between artist and critic, each sharing a portion of the other’s viewpoint, mindset, knowledge, and execution.  There have been some who would wish the other executed, for that matter, but emotions can run low for the time being.

No one is 100% artist and 0% critic.  No one is 100% critic and 0% artist.  There is a scale of proportions, which may not be easily definable, but the intention on either side of the competition dictates the viewpoint at any given moment.

For now, focusing on the artist, the artist has technique, artistic imagination, style, and acumen as an artist, not necessarily measurable, but somehow there is agreement or a common consensus as to the state of amateur versus the state of professional, especially within an audience of size. 

The artist must evaluate what is created and/or performed, to the extent of there being a recognition of the original intention resembling or matching the “product” of the artist.  A singer will have a concept of precisely how a song is to be sung by him/herself and what comes out of the mouth and the two must be reasonable facsimiles or disappointment is a certainty. 

The critic in the artist may be demanding perfection and constantly is disappointed by the performance, whether in practicing or in performing for audiences.  Perfectionism is lacking in two things: connection with reality and a lacking in maturity.  It is impossible to be in a constant state of improvement, even though both the artist and the critic would be enamored by such a state.

If “critic versus artist” were like a simple variable capacitor used for the control of treble and bass in the playing of audio, the knob could be turned between critic and artist, allowing the viewpoint to shift as needed to bring about a best performance.  Perhaps when performance day arrives, it would be better to strive for 100% artist, having sufficiently prepared for the task at hand and to share the gift of art instead of having an introverted point of view and being disconnected from the audience. 

The idea of 100% artist and 0% critic is probably not possible because we singers do hear ourselves and are part of the audience for which we perform.  The attention of the singer should be on the words, music, meaning, emotion, and the audience not only receiving, but also being a part of the intimate relationship ideal to a great performance, where the gift is received and appreciated by all.

The simple tone control has been replaced.  At first there was a treble and a bass, later a treble, midrange, and bass and after that, a graphic equalizer for various frequencies spanning from the lowest to the highest.  The graphic equalizer spans the gray area between top and bottom of frequency.  The artist should focus on what is needed for the best performance and cover the gray areas as appropriate and applicable, while having the intention for the artistry to have the final say in it all.

You, the artist, are in the driver’s seat.  Don’t let the nagging mother-in-law in the trunk distract you and cause you to crash. 

PS BONUS: where your attention goes has everything to do with stage fright.

Sources Of Information

DISCLAIMER: Nothing is offered as advice, below. Always ask your doctor about anything health-related.

Where do you look for information or help?

All sources are not created equal.

I have read articles about people who did some stupid things. Wait a minute! Can we say that horrible word, stupid? What does it mean? Should I ask a friend or look in a dictionary? What does the dictionary say?

Stupid is an adjective. An adjective describes a noun. “having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.”

Stupid can evidently mean showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense and that may mean that things appear that way.

Being ignorant can look like stupidity to others who don’t share the same ignorance.

Okay. Relax.

One article, that I read, was about a man who put himself in the hospital by taking too much Vitamin D3. Why did he not know it was too much? Why did he not know that it is an oil-based vitamin and can accumulate in the body (unlike water-soluble vitamins: B-Complex and C, for instance)? Why did he not know the symptoms of an overdose of Vitamin D3? Did he bother to research it? Did he research it? Was it an attempted suicide and he changed his mind and decided to live?

He may have been intelligent, but ignorant. Did we mention irresponsible?

Your Sources

Find reliable sources. How often have you heard that you should consult your physician about nutrition? It sounds pragmatic and reasonable and practical except for one thing. Would it be a good idea to ask your doctor what was covered regarding nutrition in medical school? What do chemists know about nutrition, or biochemists or nutritionists?

Doctors most likely know about Rickets and Scurvy and even Pelagra. They probably also know about the vitamin that helps to prevent night blindness (Vitamin A) and other nutrients, such as coenzyme Q10, Ubiquinol, etc.

I had a singing student who was an Orthopedic surgeon. He told me that he studied nothing about nutrition in college. He knew that he did not know from school, but he did do his own independent research of things like Glucosamine and Chondroitin.

A great source for a layperson is Linus Pauling Institute.

There, you can find nutritional information such as what things vitamins may help or support. You can dive deep, if your background is chemical or medical and discover what is going on at a microscopic or molecular level within cells and systems, should you seek a profound understanding of nutrition.

You can also discover how much of which vitamin or vitamins is found in specific foods that you eat.

Why would a singer want to know anything about nutrition?

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” so the saying goes.

Maintaining or building health is good for anyone and singers usually have as much desire to stay or get healthy as anyone else.

Start With The Alphabet

Vitamin A is good for mucus membrane health. Your vocal folds are mucus membrane on the exterior of them. Vitamin A is oil-based. It’s best to not overdose with it. Research it and find out what that means.

B-Complex is complex, but often comes in 25 mg, 50 mg, and 100 mg doses. The B vitamins are water soluble, but B6 can cause permanent nerve damage if you take too much of it. How much is too much? Do research on this. B1 is Thiamine. B2 is Riboflavin. B3 is Niacin, but most supplements use Niacinamide, instead. There are reasons for this. Research it. B4 is Adenine, but you don’t see it in B-Complex pills. B5 is Pantothenic Acid, or Calcium Pantothenate. B6 is Pyrodoxine Hydrochloride. B7 is Biotin. B8 is skipped. B9 is Folic Acid, or Folate. B12 is Cobalamin. All these vitamins are necessary for optimal health but in specific quantities and ratios, depending upon an individual’s needs.

Vitamin C is Ascorbic Acid and is water soluble. Research what it is good for.

Vitamin D3 is oil-based. There is research about it that you should check out.

Vitamin E is oil-based.

It is possible to overdose on any vitamin, but the ones which are oil-based can be especially dangerous, so research that.

Am I saying to take vitamins? No. Ask your doctor.

There are other nutrients to research, such as amino acids and minerals.

Singers and others should seek knowledge to support maintaining or rebuilding good health, so as to handle preventable problems if and when possible. Use common sense. Be informed. Be responsible.

Linus Pauling Institute

The Unconscious Mind

It is scientifically proven that the unconscious mind is scientifically unprovable.

Why?

It is not accessible, for one. Secondly, it must not exist, at least in the sense of what we think in terms of it being a mind, per se.

Do you mind?

The activities of the brain and how it is interfacing with the control of bodily systems and functions are detectable, but not easily observable.

Why?

We don’t have the tools to observe it in detail, if it is there, and is to be classified as a “mind” or as part of our mind.

The art of singing is 100% mental, or spiritual.

If your physical body has been trained for singing, it can “go on automatic” and not be an impediment to your artistic expression.

Mechanism, it could be called; or, multi-mechanism describes brain functions of which we are unaware. Somehow it regulates your body temperature, your breathing, your metabolism, and everything else having to do with health and life, unless it breaks down of fails in some way. It wasn’t taught to do these things. It is a mish-mash of chemicals, receptors, electricity and transmitters and synapses and more.

When there is an injury or an illness, some mechanisms and almost robotic-like parts fly into action.

White blood cells get made and go zippy zap to infection sites. How do they know to do this?

How do they know where to go, and why are more created when they are needed and how and why?

Do white cells have GPS or a guidance system to make the journey? How are white cells programmed and why would they do their kamikaze missions?

Do white cells have intelligence or a brain? 

The Subconscious Mind

Something is between the alleged subconscious and the conscious. In reverie, you’re sort of half awake and half asleep and you can see, feel, and hear dreams starting and at the same time be aware of your physical surroundings. In two places at once, almost.

Imagination lies where? Is it conscious, subconscious, or in between?

(Singers should definitely have artistic imagination, you know!)

Are there multiple layers of awareness, rather than two or three?

Maybe layers are not an adequate explanation.

Are there layers to a singer?

Is the mind in your brain?

Where is it?

Can it be surgically removed or even located?

Where is the imagination located? Is it in the brain?

Do you exist in your brain or outside of your body altogether and maybe just interface in your own unique way?

Where do these questions come from and where are the answers?

The Conscious Mind

If I am writing some questions and I am aware of this activity, then I must be in the present moment and also it must be my conscious mind. Is it solely and only the conscious, or is there more?

Where do we store information, analogous to a computer’s hard drive? Is information in the mind or in a file of some sort which is accessible to the conscious mind? How can it be the same thing, if it can be accessed through memory? Where is memory located and where is the control mechanism which goes to access memory data?

You have awareness through some senses and also can be focused on one or a combination of senses, all at the same time. How do you do that? Who or what is running the show?

What is going on with your mind when you sing?

If you have trained your voice properly, you are expressing yourself artistically and musically and have so much control that you can improvise and ad lib as far as your musicianship will allow.

Thoughts And What else?

You have thoughts, ideas, opinions, considerations, and beliefs about every single thing that you put your attention on.

What is controlling when, how, and where you put your attention?

The simple answer is you. You could say, “I”. Where is that located and is Freud’s label of “ego” descriptive, all-inclusive or even accurate at all?

People tend to want to label and classify and enumerate and describe things and give them names, but that doesn’t mean that they are correct. Is it an attempt to gain profound understanding, or to avoid having anything other than a label to tag the thing that we think we are talking about? Are we trying to avoid knowledge and understanding? Learning is sometimes hard, but research is harder.

Is the subconscious mind really there? Does it affect your singing?

“There’s an under-mind, all psychologists agree – an unconscious which does a lot of the heavy lifting in the process of thinking.” – So wrote Tom Stafford in BBC’s online “Future”article of February 18, 2018.

Who is Tom? On Twitter, we find this: Cognitive Scientist at the University of Sheffield, UK.

He has stated that all psychologists agree that there is an “under-mind”. Does it do the “heavy lifting in the process of thinking”, and how do we know this to be true? He could be correct. I don’t know.

Do all psychologists agree? Were all consulted? Was there a survey? How was that done? Was it done?

Just because people believe something is so, doesn’t make it so. It doesn’t matter if it is a few or many people, for that matter. There are still some around who believe that the world is flat and is not shaped like a ball, a sphere. This is not, in and of itself, evidence or proof of anything.

Some experiments have been done to attempt to prove the existence of the subconscious, but are they looking at the right thing in the right direction, and are they really measuring the actual activities of this level of the so-called undermind?

Arrogance Fuels Ignorance

I’ve had many discussions with a physician, who is also a former researcher, regarding living cells. He told me that “we” know everything that is in the cell and how it all functions and interacts with other cells in a living organism.

I questioned that and still question that, but with a reason. The simple fact is that until a microscope was built and used to enlarge the view of anything placed in it, there was no way to observe the microscopic.

Over time, developments have increased the observable, including using electron microscopes.

Instead of light, an electron microscope uses a stream of electrons to illuminate or reveal the object being observed and are much more powerful than light powered microscopes. This is a huge advancement for observation, but wait. There’s more. It still is observation at the atomic level.

How is observation done at the subatomic level and how might that yield things yet undiscovered about cells and of life itself.

At CERN, spectral imaging is used and is starting to be utilized by the medical profession in radiology.

It’s not just the physical which is involved in imaging, there is also the observation and measurement of energy which shed some light, as it were, on more potentially usable information in a scan.

There is more to learn and more to see, but if we think we have all the answers, it’s nothing more or less than simple arrogance fueling ignorance.

You can know nothing at all and still be a great singer.

Some people do need to be instructed, though.

Maybe 99%?

Future

Starting from the assumption that something unobserved may exist, such as the 9the planet, ostensibly altering objects orbiting the sun in the Kuiper belt, through it’s gravitational pull, may not reflect the reality of its existence.

The same goes for the nebulous aberrations attributed to a thing called the subconscious mind.

Measurement and verification of its existence may not have yet been done, sufficient to prove its existence, much less, structure and function of the subconscious or unconscious, if they do indeed exist.

Ideas, feelings, prejudices, hypotheses, biases, and opinions are not always or necessarily scientific. Many can get in the way of making art.

Minds are very complex things and hopefully the functions and operation manuals will be widely available for the good of us all.

What do I think?  I think it is more important that I think, than what I think. 

 I question nearly everything at first,  I do think that.

Maybe it is best for singers to try to just be present in the present moment and to not worry about all the inner workings of the mind and just express through the art of singing.

The mental game of singing is winnable.

 

Vocal Breaks, Cracks In The Voice

It’s called a glottal stroke, but it isn’t something to send you to the emergency room. If you’re a serious singer, you might feel like you wish it could be handled – immediately. There are more names for the most unwanted or distasteful or vulgar things in life, it seems. How many ways are there, to say crap? Point made.

Crack, break in the voice, register transition issue, or whatever else we wish to call it, most people don’t want it. Some yodel through it. Some try to make it part of their signature style, but it is a very slim minority of professionals who get away with that.

Listeners often perceive a crack in your voice as a weakness and some think you are lazy and should just power your way through it. Is it a weakness?

Strength Or Coordination Problem?

It’s not a muscle weakness. In fact, many singers have their voices so strong that they can sing thorugh the break, or crack, by forcing the vocal folds together. It is called hyperadduction and is dangerous.

Why is it dangerous? It can cause irritation than can lead to blisters, blood blisters, hemorrhage, and eventually to nodules.

The problem with nodules is that they reduce your range and destroy certain qualities in your voice. Nodules are not nodes.  Nodes are glands, such as are in the lymphatic system. Nodules are calluses and they do not vibrate the same as healthy vocal folds do, thus the sound is altered, usually for the worse. Most singers don’t want to have reduced range.

Despite all this, if the vocal folds remain in close proximity to one another, there is no crack in the voice. The crack happens when the vocal folds suddenly fly apart and readjust and produce a lighter tone production, sometimes a breathy one. The skill and coordination needed are keeping the vocal folds together and the pressure uniform, regardless of the range or passaggio.

Many people have the issue of the larynx jumping up or rising as they ascend in pitch. At a point, muscles used typically for swallowing get involved and hyper-adduct the vocal folds. This can also cause the disconnection (or the crack).

The Solution?

If the vocal folds stay together and the larynx doesn’t rise, cracks never, or almost never, happen. A split-second of a rising larynx or lapse of healthy adduction and the crack will happen as pitch ascends, however.

How can you get your voice to do this, to behave?

If you sing with your larynx imposed, or down, all the time, you may sound like Yogi Bear. Very few singers sing with the larynx down. It may prevent a crack, but it also makes the words muddy or fuzzy or unintelligible and you may not want the dark, throaty, or hollow sound in your voice.

There was a school of thought that I heard from an announcer, who said to keep the larynx down for as long as possible regardless of the pitch as it ascends. Most people don’t want to hear the affectation of the Yogi Bear impression. One singer has made a career of it, but there is only one of him.

What can we do to stop the crack?

Vocal Exercises

They don’t involve weights.

Vocal exercises can help you to tame the beast in your throat. The wild animal called your larynx has muscles, ligaments and cartilages in it. The muscles can be trained to work for singing, even though there is another primary purpose for the larynx.

Your vocal folds are the swallowing “safety net”. If the epiglottis doesn’t successfully close off the tube to your lungs, the vestibule of the larynx, which leads to the trachea, You choke. In normal swallowing, the vocal folds tightly close, as the larynx rises, every time you swallow something.

This might account for the larynx rising as you sing higher, unless you have it trained to not jump up like an excited Pomeranian.

There are vocal exercises for laryngeal stability, for safe and adequate adduction, for control of pitch, and for having excellent endurance. There are also vocal exercises which are useless or even harmful. It’s vital to know the ones to use and in what progressive order, so that your voice develops without injury or unnecessary delays.

You can learn to use your voice to your best advantage, when you do exercises for strength and control.  

You only need one of the ten faults below, to slow or stop your progress.

Most people have more than one.

1. No one showed you how to practice.

There are ways to practice, to achieve results. All include that you must practice with a purpose. What are you wanting to do or improve?

2. You’re practicing the wrong things.

Bad vocal exercises will make bad singers. Do you know which ones work? If you are not improving, you’re doing the wrong ones.

3. You’re practicing the wrong way.

You are dehydrated and your attitude is bad. That would be the wrong way. What else? Going over music repetetively is like the horrendous garage bands I heard years ago. Practice doesn’t make perfect but correct practice gives you a chance to get better. There is actually a procedure to follow, to progress rapidly.

4. You’re not practicing enough.

It is not unreasonable to practice three hours a day, if you have gradually built up to that. It is virtually useless to practice fifteen minutes a day. You will lose range (if you had any). You will lose technique, endurance, strength, power, and may also develop faulty articulation.

5. You’re practicing too much.

If you put in fifteen hours a day, you may just be keeping your voice in a state of fatigue or worse. Vocal abuse is a real thing and pain does not equal gain. Pain equals irritation and/or strain.

6. No one told you to practice.

You rely on your natural talent and you never practice. This doesn’t work for most people.

7. You are a perfectionist.

There is no gray area with you. It is either right or wrong, actually: perfect or terrible. Let’s hope you are not a teacher and that you do not mistreat your poor students!

8. You have little or no objectivity.

You have no real idea of how you sound to others. If you record yourself, listen back to it the same day. Listen to your recording a day or two later. What are you hearing? You must be specific and don’t generalize. Having objectivity is vital to improving your singing.

9. You are not being analytical.

You don’t separate all the aspects of singing into their elemental parts. What are some? Articulation, dynamics, connection of vocal registers, timing, rhythm, style, phrasing, artistic imagination, are but a few.

10. You are hyper-critical.

You only see the bad and never the good You exaggerate when you think or talk about the bad. This is a symptom of perfectionism, an insidious one.

“Repetition is the mother of skill”.

The repetition of doing things the wrong way, or at the wrong time, or for the wrong amount of time is the mother of failure.

You can practice mistakes and make them stringer. You can practice the wrong way and hurt yourself. You can practice the wrong way and think that practice does not help.



Do you raise your head (tilt it back) for high notes?  

Is this wrong?  

Many times I have seen in studios, a singer sing with the head tilted back, the microphone set high, at eye level or higher. 

 Does this help you reach your high notes?  No.

REACH is the operative word.  

Notes are not “high”.  

They may FEEL high to you but it is simply a more rapid vibration and this increases the “higher” you go. 

If you raise your head, you WILL cause strain. 

 It may not be today or tomorrow, or it might be.  

If you raise your head, you are trying to compensate for bad technique.  

It won’t help to tilt your head back but there are things which will help.  

It is almost a 100% certainty that if you tilt your head back, your larynx has risen way too high and you are also hyper-adducting your vocal folds (cords).  

When they crash together too hard and the lubricative mucus on them dries up, the vocal folds will become irritated from the friction.  

What happens next? 

You can become hoarse from the swelling you have caused, you can lose your voice temporarily (laryngitis from vocal abuse) and you can even get calluses (vocal nodules) which come after the blisters and the blood blisters. 

What to do?  What to do?  

Get training to achieve laryngeal stability so that your larynx doesn’t fly up to the moon every time you fly up to your high notes. 

I COULD NOT CONQUER THIS ON MY OWN !!! 

I did it for years, straining to get the high notes.  I paid $175 per hour  in the 90s, to get this bad habit eradicated (and also learned many more things which freed up my voice).  

It was worth twice the price. I gained the freedom of LOSING the break in my voice and GAINING a lot more usable and COMFORTABLE range.  

A caveat (a not so good thing): MANY vocal teachers have no idea how to fix this, much less know about the cause of it, and still, will gladly waste your time and your money.